Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington, IN.
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2022 Jun 1;54(6):912-922. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002874. Epub 2022 Jan 25.
Contact sport athletes are exposed to a unique environment where they sustain repeated head impacts throughout the season and can sustain hundreds of head impacts over a few months. Accordingly, recent studies outlined the role that head impact exposure (HIE) has in concussion biomechanics and in the development of cognitive and brain-based changes. Those studies focused on time-bound effects by quantifying exposure leading up to the concussion, or cognitive changes after a season in which athletes had high HIE. However, HIE may have a more prolonged effect. This study identified associations between HIE and concussion incidence during different periods of the college football fall season.
This study included 1120 athlete seasons from six National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I football programs across 5 yr. Athletes were instrumented with the Head Impact Telemetry System to record daily HIE. The analysis quantified associations of preseason/regular season/total season concussion incidence with HIE during those periods.
Strong associations were identified between HIE and concussion incidence during different periods of the season. Preseason HIE was associated with preseason and total season concussion incidence, and total season HIE was associated with total season concussion incidence.
These findings demonstrate a prolonged effect of HIE on concussion risk, wherein elevated preseason HIE was associated with higher concussion risk both during the preseason and throughout the entire fall season. This investigation is the first to provide evidence supporting the hypothesis of a relationship between elevated HIE during the college football preseason and a sustained decreased tolerance for concussion throughout that season.
接触性运动运动员所处的环境较为独特，他们在整个赛季中会反复受到头部撞击，并且在短短几个月内可能会受到数百次头部撞击。因此，最近的研究概述了头部撞击暴露（HIE）在脑震荡生物力学和认知及基于大脑的变化发展中的作用。这些研究通过量化导致脑震荡的暴露量，或量化运动员 HIE 较高的整个赛季后的认知变化，重点研究了限时效应。然而，HIE 可能具有更持久的影响。本研究确定了 HIE 与大学橄榄球秋季赛季不同时期脑震荡发病率之间的关联。
本研究纳入了来自六个美国全国大学体育协会一级足球项目的 1120 个运动员赛季。运动员使用头部撞击遥测系统（Head Impact Telemetry System）来记录日常 HIE。分析量化了这些时期的 HIE 与各时期脑震荡发病率之间的关联。
在赛季的不同时期，HIE 与脑震荡发病率之间存在很强的关联。 preseason/regular season/total season 脑震荡发病率与 preseason 和 total season 的 HIE 均存在关联，而 total season HIE 与 total season 脑震荡发病率相关。
这些发现表明 HIE 对脑震荡风险的影响具有持久性， preseason 的 HIE 升高与 preseason 和整个秋季赛季期间的脑震荡风险升高均相关。该研究首次提供了证据支持这样一种假设，即在大学橄榄球季前赛期间 HIE 升高与整个赛季中对脑震荡的耐受性持续降低之间存在关系。
